1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system, and more specifically, to a medical image network system to which image information which has already been processed and information which has not been processed is input coexistently.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of medicine, various kinds of diagnostic image generating apparatuses (modalities) using X rays or the like have been in use and Computed Radiography (CR) apparatuses, Computed Tomography (CT) apparatuses, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) apparatuses, and the like have been put into practice. An image generated by each modality is displayed on a CRT or output on a film by a Laser Printer (LP) or the like, and used at a medical facility for diagnosing a lesion or an injury, and the degree thereof.
A CR (computed radiography) apparatus is a radiation image reading recording system which obtains an image signal by using stimulable phosphor which emits light upon exposure to stimulating rays such as visible light or a laser beam in accordance with the radiation energy which has been stored in the material. Radiation image information based on a human body or the like is temporarily recorded on a stimulable phosphor sheet, and the stimulable phosphor sheet is scanned by a stimulating ray such as a laser beam to cause it to emit light, and the light emitted is photoelectrically read to obtain an electric signal. Recently, the CR apparatuses have-been in wide use and put into practice. As an aspect of a CR apparatus to be connected to a network system which will be explained later, not only the above described entire radiation image reading recording system but also a single radiation image information reading apparatus which can input a read out image signal (image information) to the network may be used, for example.
Following recent improvement in communications and computer technologies, a variety of networks using computers are being installed in hospitals. Each modality in the above, which has been used in a stand alone mode, is becoming a portion of the network as an image information inputting apparatus, and so are CRT displays and LPs as image outputting apparatuses.
Meanwhile, these image information inputting apparatuses (image generating apparatuses) and image outputting apparatuses have been manufactured on a premise that they will be used in a stand alone mode. Therefore, there has been no compatibility in formats of image information when image information is input or output between these apparatuses. However, following the recent development of networking technology, this problem is being solved.
Nevertheless, the image information inputting apparatuses are originated in systems which used to carry out output of individual visible images, as has been described above. Therefore, image information input from an image information inputting apparatus to a network may have been image-processed by the image information inputting apparatus. It is common practice for modalities other than CR apparatuses to output image information which has already been processed, and image information input to a network is generally assumed to be image information having been processed (processing complete). However, image information input from a CR apparatus is not necessarily the information of an image which has been processed (processing incomplete), and the image information input from an apparatus other than CR apparatuses is not always the image information which has already been processed, either.
As has been described above, it is possible for image information which has been processed and information that has not been processed to coexist on a network. When image information input in such a manner is output to various kinds of image information outputting apparatuses, image processing appropriate for the apparatuses may be necessary.
However, for image information which has already been processed by an image information inputting apparatus, it may not be appropriate in some cases to further carry out uniform image processing on the network.
The present invention has been created based on consideration of the above problems, and its object is to provide a medical image network system which enables appropriate image processing on the network, even when image information having been processed and image information not having been processed is input coexistently from image information inputting apparatuses.
In a first medical image network system of the present invention, image information input to the network has process completion or incompletion information as header information thereof showing whether or not image processing has been carried out thereon, and the network either causes an image processing apparatus to carry out image processing on the image information or causes an image information outputting apparatus to output the image information without processing thereby, based on this information.
In other words, the first medical image network system of the present invention connects an image information inputting apparatus such as a CR apparatus, a CT apparatus, and an MRI apparatus for inputting image information representing a medical image, and an image information outputting apparatus such as a CRT and an LP for reproducing the image information as a visible image, has:
processing completion or incompletion information as header information or the like of image information input to the network showing whether or not predetermined image processing (such as frequency enhancing (or smoothing) processing, tone processing, enlargement or reduction processing, or the like) has been carried out on the image information; and
comprises processing completion or incompletion judging means which reads the processing completion or incompletion information from the image information having been input to the network and judges whether or not the image information has been image-processed; and
an image processing apparatus which carries out predetermined image processing such as frequency enhancing (or smoothing) processing, tone processing, or enlargement or reduction processing on image information which has been judged by the processing completion or incompletion judging means as image processing incomplete.
Image information which has been judged as processing complete by the processing completion or incompletion judging means may be output as it is from the network to an image information outputting apparatus, or may be output after general processing thereon to fit the information to a format of the image information outputting apparatus.
As a method of image processing by the image processing apparatus, the image processing apparatus may have a default image processing condition so that image processing is carried out on image information which has not been processed according to the condition, or image processing may be carried out after a processing condition is decided based on the header information of the input image information or attached information other than that. Alternatively, an image processing condition and the content of the processing may be transferred from the image information inputting apparatus to the image processing apparatus so that the image processing is carried out based thereon.
In a second medical image network system of the present invention, the image information input to the network has image processing completion or incompletion information as header information or the like of the image information showing whether or not the image information has been processed so that an image processing apparatus can carry out image processing on the image information based thereon, and image quality judgment is carried out on image information which has been processed by the image processing apparatus or image information input after image processing has been carried out thereon by an image information inputting apparatus, in order to output the image information to an image information outputting apparatus after image processing is again carried out thereon as required.
In other words, the second medical image network system of the present invention connects an image information inputting apparatus for inputting image information representing a medical image, and an image information outputting apparatus for reproducing the image information as a visible image, has processing completion or incompletion information as header information or the like of the image information input to the network showing whether or not predetermined image processing (such as frequency enhancing (or smoothing) processing, tone processing, enlargement or reduction processing, or the like) has been carried out on the image information; and comprises:
processing completion or incompletion judging means which reads the processing completion or incompletion information from the image information having been input to the network and judges whether or not the image information has been image-processed;
an image processing apparatus which carries out predetermined image processing on image information which has been judged by the processing completion or incompletion judging means as image processing incomplete; and
image quality judging means which comprises a monitor unit such as a display apparatus for inputting image information having been judged as processing complete by the processing completion or incompletion judging means and image information having been processed by the image processing apparatus and for reproducing a visible image representing the image information, a judgment inputting unit for receiving input of judgment regarding image quality of the visible image, and an outputting unit for outputting image information whose quality judgment result is fair to the image information outputting apparatus and for returning image information whose quality judgment result is not fair to the image information inputting apparatus.
The judgment inputting unit may function as an input unit comprising inputting means whereby an operator or the like observing a visible image reproduced by the monitor unit directly inputs a judgment result to the image quality judging means, or may function as an input unit which receives a judgment result from the image information inputting apparatus input by the operator or the like, when the monitor unit of the image quality judging means is installed near the image information inputting apparatus (in this case, the input unit does not need inputting means of its own).
Image information which has been returned to the image information inputting means by the image quality judging means is re-processed according to the same processing condition, or according to a processing condition having been changed from the previous one, to be input again to the image quality judging means. The operator or the like inputs whether or not the processing condition is changed, a new processing condition if changed, and a judgment result, to the judgment inputting unit. Alternatively, the operator or the like may input a processing condition by choosing an appropriate one from a plurality of pre-set processing conditions.
According to the first medical image network system of the present invention, image information to be input to the network has processing completion or incompletion information as header information or the like of the image information showing whether or not image processing has been carried out thereon, and the processing completion or incompletion judging means sends the image information to the image processing apparatus or to the image information outputting apparatus as it is, based on this information. The image information sent to the image processing apparatus has not been processed, and by outputting the image information on which the image processing apparatus has carried out image processing to the image information outputting apparatus, the image information can be output properly to the image information outputting apparatus after appropriate image processing carried out thereon on the network, even in the case where image information having been image-processed and image information not having been processed is input coexistently from the image information inputting apparatus.
According to the second medical image network system of the present invention, image information to be input to the network has processing completion or incompletion information as header information or the like of the image information showing whether or not image processing has been carried out thereon, and the processing completion or incompletion judging means sends the image information to the image processing apparatus or to the image quality judging means as it is, based on this information. The image information sent to the image processing apparatus has not been processed, and the image information is output to the image quality judging means after the image processing apparatus has carried out image processing thereon. The image information having been processed (including both the information processed by the image processing apparatus and the information which had been processed before it was input from the image information inputting apparatus) and input to the image quality judging means is reproduced by the monitor unit. Based on a judgment result input from the image quality judging means, the image information is returned to the image processing apparatus to be re-processed thereby, or output to the image information outputting apparatus. In this manner, even in the case where image information having been image-processed and image information not having been processed is input coexistently from the image information inputting apparatus, the image information can be output properly to the image information outputting apparatus after appropriate image processing has been carried out thereon on the network.